p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"If not for the nicotine, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle today. Thanksgiving was always just a peachy event in which he remembered what normalcy was, a memory that dug in his heart like a curved iron claw. The stick between his fingers was not something he was happy with depending on, yet here he was, clinging to the only consistent thing of that day. Unfortunately, the cigarette was almost finished./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There was a scratching at the screen door which prompted him to open it, the animal on the other side shooting like a bullet out of the house. He vaguely saw the orange ball of fluff he lovingly called "shit" most of the time dark into the bushes, off to do whatever it was that cats do when they feel the need to escape./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Before the door can slam shut, someone's foot stops it. A rough voice, a pocked arm snakes through the door and offers him another cigarette. He pauses before accepting it, kicking the door shut as soon as the hand leaves in frustration. His own mother would give him the thing that would kill him, of course. It was such a filthy habit that he was surprised he even took it up, yet it made days like these bearable. He supposed that he was willing to give up his own little obsessive-compulsive ideas for something to quiet them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He pockets the cigarette instead of lighting it, throwing his dad's expensive silver zip-o into his pocket. He wouldn't miss it, especially today. Then he grinds the old cigarette down into the glass dish that's already overflowing with them (only half of them are his, he swears) and thrusts open the door./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His house is always kind of dark, which irritates him more than the fact that he willingly smokes cigarettes. One can't clean properly in the dark, but it wasn't like he was going to keep this house clean to begin with. He followed the wood-paneled halls until he found his own room, popping in for a moment to put on a shirt and grab his wallet and knife. In the bathroom, he carefully avoided the needle on the floor, picking it up with a piece of toilet paper and depositing it in the waste basket. He took his shaver from the medicine cabinet, touched up the back of his head, and shut the light./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm going out," he announced to nobody in particular. His mother sat on the couch in a comatose state, the reason sitting next to her in a display of poor hygiene. He didn't bother to sweep this needle anywhere, just rather made a careful note to avoid the couch for a while./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The sun was starting to set finally on this Thanksgiving, another day out of three hundred and sixty five that he was stuck here. There was three hundred and sixty five plus about another month more before he could finally stop coming here, finally change his name from this godforsaken name, and finally go do whatever he wanted with his life. Maybe then he'd finally be happy./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His car was a purring beauty, his pride and joy wrapped into a four-door thing which he had replaced nearly everything in. For three hundred bucks, he couldn't have asked for anything better, and now it was a kind of project that he invested into when something broke but otherwise it was fine. It took him out of the apartment complexes of suburbia and into the country area where things were quieter, to the end of the lane where he knew that the seemingly quiet house at the end was going to be bustling. Maybe he'd loose himself in liquid courage or score some girl (or even a guy, it had happened) he hoped./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The first sign that something was wrong was when he had to let himself into the house, and there was nobody he recognized on the ground floor. There was the usual shenanigans with drinking here, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He was looking for the small group of people with liquids better than cheap beer and hangover-inducing mixed drinks, who he always managed to score something out of in the end./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His feet took him upstairs, nearly knocking over a red cup of whatever liquid that someone had set there and forgotten. He poked his head into different rooms, some containing some eye candy and some not, until he came to the room that they were usually in. The scent was what first hit him, something so like home he nearly gagged./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Nobody really responded to him entering the room, sending another wave of nausea sliding over him. He carefully navigated over the people until he found the stupid orange recycling bag that they always kept goods in, extracting the bottle of vodka from it and looking around. Still, nobody noticed he was here. He made his way to leave until a voice from the corner made him jump./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Grab and leave?" It's a rough voice, neither feminine nor male yet definitely not doped out like the rest of the room. "Or are you that Ackerman guy they were talking about?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He turned to face the voice, hidden in a closet with a… he couldn't believe it, a DS in their hand? The sound of the Pokémon battle theme came faintly from the glowing aqua device, and he felt a need to smack it from their hands. Still, he resisted, giving them an affirmative nod./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Cool," the person said, snapping the DS shut and climbing out of the closet in one fluid motion. They were actually quite tall, nearly a foot above him. In the dim light he could see they had silver-framed glasses on and dark hair tied up in a simple high ponytail, their clothing simple and their stance the kind of lanky one that came with people not being sure what to do with themselves. "Let's go."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There was a scratching at the screen door which prompted him to open it, the animal on the other side shooting like a bullet out of the house. He vaguely saw the orange ball of fluff he lovingly called "shit" most of the time dark into the bushes, off to do whatever it was that cats do when they feel the need to escape./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Before the door can slam shut, someone's foot stops it. A rough voice, a pocked arm snakes through the door and offers him another cigarette. He pauses before accepting it, kicking the door shut as soon as the hand leaves in frustration. His own mother would give him the thing that would kill him, of course. It was such a filthy habit that he was surprised he even took it up, yet it made days like these bearable. He supposed that he was willing to give up his own little obsessive-compulsive ideas for something to quiet them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He pockets the cigarette instead of lighting it, throwing his dad's expensive silver zip-o into his pocket. He wouldn't miss it, especially today. Then he grinds the old cigarette down into the glass dish that's already overflowing with them (only half of them are his, he swears) and thrusts open the door./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His house is always kind of dark, which irritates him more than the fact that he willingly smokes cigarettes. One can't clean properly in the dark, but it wasn't like he was going to keep this house clean to begin with. He followed the wood-paneled halls until he found his own room, popping in for a moment to put on a shirt and grab his wallet and knife. In the bathroom, he carefully avoided the needle on the floor, picking it up with a piece of toilet paper and depositing it in the waste basket. He took his shaver from the medicine cabinet, touched up the back of his head, and shut the light./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm going out," he announced to nobody in particular. His mother sat on the couch in a comatose state, the reason sitting next to her in a display of poor hygiene. He didn't bother to sweep this needle anywhere, just rather made a careful note to avoid the couch for a while./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The sun was starting to set finally on this Thanksgiving, another day out of three hundred and sixty five that he was stuck here. There was three hundred and sixty five plus about another month more before he could finally stop coming here, finally change his name from this godforsaken name, and finally go do whatever he wanted with his life. Maybe then he'd finally be happy./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His car was a purring beauty, his pride and joy wrapped into a four-door thing which he had replaced nearly everything in. For three hundred bucks, he couldn't have asked for anything better, and now it was a kind of project that he invested into when something broke but otherwise it was fine. It took him out of the apartment complexes of suburbia and into the country area where things were quieter, to the end of the lane where he knew that the seemingly quiet house at the end was going to be bustling. Maybe he'd loose himself in liquid courage or score some girl (or even a guy, it had happened) he hoped./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The first sign that something was wrong was when he had to let himself into the house, and there was nobody he recognized on the ground floor. There was the usual shenanigans with drinking here, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He was looking for the small group of people with liquids better than cheap beer and hangover-inducing mixed drinks, who he always managed to score something out of in the end./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His feet took him upstairs, nearly knocking over a red cup of whatever liquid that someone had set there and forgotten. He poked his head into different rooms, some containing some eye candy and some not, until he came to the room that they were usually in. The scent was what first hit him, something so like home he nearly gagged./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Nobody really responded to him entering the room, sending another wave of nausea sliding over him. He carefully navigated over the people until he found the stupid orange recycling bag that they always kept goods in, extracting the bottle of vodka from it and looking around. Still, nobody noticed he was here. He made his way to leave until a voice from the corner made him jump./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Grab and leave?" It's a rough voice, neither feminine nor male yet definitely not doped out like the rest of the room. "Or are you that Ackerman guy they were talking about?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He turned to face the voice, hidden in a closet with a… he couldn't believe it, a DS in their hand? The sound of the Pokémon battle theme came faintly from the glowing aqua device, and he felt a need to smack it from their hands. Still, he resisted, giving them an affirmative nod./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Cool," the person said, snapping the DS shut and climbing out of the closet in one fluid motion. They were actually quite tall, nearly a foot above him. In the dim light he could see they had silver-framed glasses on and dark hair tied up in a simple high ponytail, their clothing simple and their stance the kind of lanky one that came with people not being sure what to do with themselves. "Let's go."/p
